DS: Repercussions
by Thor2000
Summary: The Collins Family learns that a former nanny to the Collins children has been arrested for "touching" kids elsewhere, and Ally McBeal-Collins discovers she may have done the same thing at Collinwood. Rated "M" for Mature Readers.
1. Chapter 1

Zoe Trilling voice-over: "Collinwood is an intimidating and imposing structure at night. Under the fall of moonlight, shadows fly around the great estate and the apparitions of former residents once again walk its halls. It is a very haunted structure during the nighttime hours, but by sunrise, the vestiges of darkness no longer hold her grasp and the family once again takes hold. Generations modern and present transcend its halls and the living turn it into a home once more. Laughter and gaiety fill its halls… voices forgotten in this great place once known more for the dead than the living."

From the doorway under the stairs into the drawing room, two beautifully charming little girls raced giggling and screaming through the house. Little Lainey Collins was in the red jumper and pink t-shirt diving under the table, coming out the other side and hurrying into the front alcove. Behind her with the long brunette pigtails was her big sister, Georgia, in the tiny blue jeans and white shirt. They could have been twins except for their respective heights. They both had big brown doll-like eyes and little pointed chins with grins of pearl-shaped teeth and incalculable juvenile energy to stay ahead of their father's cousin. Her red hair trussed back into a ponytail, Amanda fought to keep her breath as she raced after the giggling pixies trying to catch them. Clad in a tank top and shorts, she gasped a bit out of breath. What had started out as story-time in the den at the front of the house had turned into a foot race around the room and under the balcony into the foyer.

"I'm going to get you…" She chanted after them. "I'm going to get you." She noticed William's baby girls had dashed into the front entry hall with the coats and umbrellas. "Why where did they go?" She pretended to wander past the front doors. "Did they fly away?"

Lainey giggled. Running through these long halls and big rooms was a lot of fun!

"There they are!" Amanda squealed and dashed after them. Both the little pixies squealed as she let them run past her into the drawing room. Amanda was just a big kid at heart. She loved babysitting them even if Ally did not like her spoiling them rotten, but then, what were the chances Amanda would ever have in having her own babies? She chased the giggling and laughing little girls around the sofa in front of the fireplace and over to the piano toward the end of the room passing the liquor cabinet and back to the piano, this time charging at great speed through the back hall at the back of the house from the drawing room to the dining room, passing the back stairway on their way. When the room opened up the great size of the dining hall, Lainey dined under the table toward her grandmother, Angelique Collins. Georgia meanwhile raced around her Aunt Carolyn and out the open double doors, crossing the main hall toward the ballroom.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Carrie…" Amanda braced on her knees to catch her breath.

"Amanda, honey…" Carolyn gracefully turned her head up to her niece. "Could you take the babies out of the house for a while? We have a lot of work to do here."

"Pizza!" A voice squeaked by Angelique's skirts. "I want pizza!"

"Okay…" Amanda relented with a light breath. She'd want to change clothes if she had to go out. Lainey meanwhile peeked her head out to her grandmother's beaming and smiling face. Angelique hugged and kissed her baby grand-daughter as Amanda came round the table and collected her, lifting the little fairy up to her hip to carry her upstairs. She'd have to borrow clothes from her Cousin Lizzie instead of returning to Rose Cottage. She'd also borrow the extra car instead of taking her little Volkswagen. With the sounds of screaming children subsiding, Angelique turned to the business on the table.

"The town council meeting must have run overtime…" Carolyn Stoddard-Loomis checked her watch. "Maggie promised to be here by now."

"Or maybe she's avoiding us." Angelique shined a bit. Stacked over the end of the dining table were envelopes, invitations, itineraries, schedules and all the paperwork for the Annual Collins Family Cotillion. Jamison Collins had started the parties around 1895 after years of being invited to the gatherings of other fortunate and powerful New England families, but Carolyn's mother did away with them in the Sixties shortly after the public death of her husband. There was much more to the story than that. After all, Paul Stoddard had turned up alive and well back in 1969, at least ten years after he was reportedly dead. Carolyn restarted the parties in 1973 after she married. Other celebrations such as birthdays, holidays and ceremonies had been restarted after ignoring them so why not recreate the cotillions her grandfather had created. Carolyn sipped her coffee as Chloe Edwards, one of the family servants, refilled it for her.

"At last count…" Angelique checked the invite list. "We had a hundred and thirty-eight responses. That's just a bit more than last year." She thumbed through her list of telephone numbers.

"You didn't add in the invites your son sent out." Carolyn lightly scratched her left ear. "All together, it's three hundred and seventeen."

"Oh, who is he kidding?!"

"Angelique, your son has a lot of friends." Carolyn sipped her coffee.

"Let me see his lists…" Angelique took the cotillion invitation list and scanned it for new names. Dr. Thomas Shaw was the family physician, and Chris Jennings was an old friend of the family. William and Georgia Thomas were friends of his wife, but where the known family friends and local acquaintances ended, she noticed new names on the list.

"Well, I know Michael Bluth and London Tipton by reputation, but who's Ben Gates?" She asked.

"He's that historian who found writing on the back of the Declaration of Independence." Carolyn sat back at the head of the table stirring her coffee.

"Hannah Montana?"

"Your grand-daughters are big fans of her."

"Temperance Brennan?"

"Your son is a fan of her books."

"Well, I know Fox Mulder is his friend in the FBI…" Angelique started getting the feeling her son had sent invites to practically everyone he had ever met. "Who are Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson?"

"They're some of his ghost-hunting partners." Carolyn knew their TV-Series. "He promised them visits to Collinwood."

"Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage?" Angelique was only a third through her son's friends. "I'm getting my son on the phone." The former sorceress reached out and took her cell phone. "William can throw his own cotillion if he thinks…"

"Seems like just yesterday he was about so tall and running loose through the estate…" Carolyn reminisced a bit. Angelique looked across as she waited for a response. "He was just an adorable little scamp, always breaking things, much like…"

Something shattered in the hall. Carolyn and Angelique turned their heads to look out to the source of the noise. Just outside of the dining room, Georgia was standing at the broken shards of a large vase.

"Uh-oh…" The little brunette rascal chirped.

"…His daughters…." Carolyn added.


	2. Chapter 2

2

Collins Road passed the estate and ran directly toward the cliffs before it at Seaview Drive. Seaview had an unobstructed view of the bay toward Acadia State Park on the other side but then it moved in-land past several Colonial and clapboard homes ranging in color from white to light blue before passing the end of Bayside Drive. At the end of the drive surrounded by trees was a charming two-story home built by Caleb Collins around 1870. It wasn't as vast as Collinwood, but like the great estate, it was rumored to be haunted, not that William or Ally Collins ever experienced anything here. Local attorney Tony Peterson maneuvered his escort up the slight incline from the street, past a retaining wall and a few trees and then had his unrestricted view of the vast front yard. A few Collins family groundskeepers were here to take care of the grounds. In the shadow of the house, Tony parked behind Ally's Beamer and opened his car door. Before him, there was a walkway up to the front veranda. The white and black mansion had twelve rooms and a large backyard just a bit dwarfed by the front yard. Men trimmed the bushes, trimmed the edges of the yard and water the flowers before the house. Lightly swaying his briefcase, Tony added a bit of a skip to his walk as he hopped up to the front porch. A tricycle blocking his path and a plastic doll missing an eye in the swing greeted him. He pressed the doorbell.

"Hey, Tony…" The unshaven son of Barnabas and Angelique appeared at the door. "Who are you sending to jail this time?"

"You if you grow that beard." Tony was a partner with Frank Garner for one of the two local law firms in town. Ally took cases from him from time to time to keep her license to practice law, but she much more loved the life of being a mom to two little girls and driving them around to show them off to people.

"Where's Ally?" Tony looked around the front hall and noticed the now totally brunette lady lawyer in Capri pants and a t-shirt coming toward him. A smudge of flour to her cheek, a slight stain to her shoulder, she lightly bobbed her long locks back to welcome Tony.

"Hi, Tony…." She was wiping her hands off of cupcake mix to meet him. Her husband hung by her a moment then entered the kitchen in back. "You got something to get me out of the house?"

"Ally, I got a nice local case for you." Tony opened his case up on the foyer table. "A local girl from the area was accused of impropriety of the boys at the day-care center near Crabapple Cove. She's swearing she's innocent, and the state hired us to render her defense."

"Um…" Ally scratched her chin a little. "Is she guilty?"

"I talked to her, she sounds confused and scared." Tony turned his head up to her. "It sounds pretty simple, just make sure her rights are covered. Don't let the state railroad her. Try and get a plea bargain. I knew her parents, they wouldn't want her name dragged through the mud like this."

"Sounds simple," Ally took the case file to peruse.

"What's with the beard?" Tony glanced into the direction William had departed.

"He's working on another novel."

"Well, that explains it."

"I'll peruse it and get back to you by tomorrow." Ally held the file under her folded arms and close to her chest.

"Good… good…" Tony checked his watch. "I promised Julia I'd be home ten minutes ago. Ally, make me proud."

"Not a problem…" Ally shined and escorted him to the door. Her childlike face lit up with a glowing grin as Tony passed out the door and she closed it behind him, pressing her body against the heavy oak thing to get it shut and latched. A light yawn from her lips, she turned for the kitchen and drifted across the length of the foyer, seemingly content in the happiness ans quiet of her home while her babies were with their grandma. She slipped in through the side door of the kitchen to see William snacking and stacking things from the refrigerator. Olives, cheese cubes, deviled eggs and anything else he could carry or pop into his mouth was being taken and extracted. He looked back at her like a big kid and she chuckled a bit at him before turning to check her cupcakes in the oven. Miles away, kids smelled cupcakes cooking and started getting drawn to the house.

"So, what is it?" William came around Ally from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her bare neck. He tempted her with a deviled egg from the refrigerator and fed her with his fingers. "Murder case? Drug case? Do we have a nasty custody battle?" He lived fascinated by her judicial pursuits. "Are there skeletons in the closet?"

"I tell you way too much." Ally lightly giggled to him and spread the file open before her on the counter. "I'm playing defense here in a felony case. He wants me to defend this girl named Gloria Becker accused of impropriety with young boys." She openly described the case and noticed an odd coincidence. "Oh… According to her employment record, she worked at Collinwood when she was eighteen. Do you recall her?"

"What?" William finished off his last deviled egg then had a memory he wanted to forget. He started to say something, and then shrugged it off completely. "Uh, I need to get some typing done."

"Typing?" Ally reacted. William turned the side way out of the kitchen and headed to his study in the back of the house next to the kitchen. It was full of his books on mythology and the paranormal. It was decorated in horror movie memorabilia, spirit photography and other horror and mythology bric-a-brac. Ally called the room "a garage sale waiting to happen." A skull-shaped candy dish full of chocolate mints on the corner of his desk, he sat under a vintage Marilyn Monroe poster on the wall before cluttered book cases and leaned over his computer, turned toward it and started typing at his next horror novel.

"You didn't answer my question." Ally had followed her. "Do you recall her?"

"Oh, um…." William was hedging nervously. "She was one of several nannies that Aunt Carolyn hired… Ally, I really need to get some work done." He turned and started pecking with his one hand to his keyboard.

"Did she do something to you?" Ally feared the worse.

"Ally," William turned annoyed and defensive. "I'm working!" He turned round to his computer screen to continue typing. She didn't leave him. Something was telling her that Gloria might not be so innocent otherwise her husband might have been less embarrassed of his past and more open to talk about it. If this girl had molested boys now, what might she have done to William and his cousins when she was eighteen? What was it that he was still ashamed of years after the incident? Ally feared the worse. Her eyes started watering with tears to realize there was something bad that had happened to him in his past.

"Oh my god..." Her lip trembled as her imagination tried telling her what she refused to accept. "What did she do to you?!"


	3. Chapter 3

3

Lizzie Loomis hated sitting at the small table with William's little girls and her little brother, Christopher. The old dining table only sat fourteen people and was crowded enough once the family came to gather round for the family dinner. At least once a week, it was required for the whole family to sit to dinner for intelligent adult conversation. Barnabas and Angelique alternated with Quentin and Maggie for the end near the entryway while Willie and Carolyn split dual time at the other end near the kitchen. The progeny filled the table in between, but even that system was not absolute. Jamison, Sara or Lizzie sometimes invited dates and Uncle David sometimes came from Bangor with his son and daughter, Carrie and Roger. With Ally and the babies it could get really crowded, but then William found a vast table that could sit twenty in a haunted mansion known as Rose Red near Seattle, purchased it and had it delivered to Collinwood. Now everyone was happy, but according to Angelique, the ghosts that haunted Collinwood wanted that table out of the house!

Creating the vast dinner just once a week was the easy part, but there was no way the renewed household staff could handle it every night. Barnabas used his fork and knife to peel his duck meat from the bone, and Angelique ate like a bird, sharing bites with her little granddaughter, Lainey. Ally pleaded with Georgia to eat her vegetables as William used napkin after napkins to wipe the sauce from his fingers. To his left, Amanda with her flaming red hair and black sweater gazed annoyingly at Lizzie in the tight dress, her breasts about to pop out the top. J.R. was to Amanda's left next to Uncle Quentin across from Aunt Maggie and Cousin Christopher. Quentin's raucous laughter filled the room at a story Willie had heard about Mr. Eckert from the local post office. At the head, Carolyn played the role of hostess, much the way her mother must have done when she was alive. To keep her alive at the table, she had her mother's portrait and Uncle Roger's placed in a state of revered position on the wall across from those of Joshua and Naomi Collins. In a sense, the entire Collins family was present.

"J.R…." Lizzie tilted back her Marilyn Monroe-like features. "Do my boobs bother you or something?"

"I didn't know this was going to be an x-rated dinner." The family comedian had been making sex jokes since he was eleven years old.

"J.R.," Willie sipped his sherry. "If you can't say something constructive, don't say anything at all."

"That's one way to get him to stop talking." Maggie recalled years of wisecracks from the young man when she was still the family governess. She sipped ginger ale at the table, having drifted away from sherry over the years. Angelique and Carolyn still imbibed it, but the only true persons at the table to not dabble in alcohol were William, Ally, Sara and the little girls. Barnabas preferred sherry between his brandy, and Willie liked his beer. Between his shots of sherry, Quentin liked his shots of scotch.

"When I grow up I want big boobies like Aunt Lizzie." Georgia sipped her milk and giggled innocently. Angelique chuckled out loud at that announcement and Ally covered her face from embarrassment.

"Great…." William was already fretting about teenage daughters. He reached around Amanda and smacked J.R. upside the head.

"Sara…" Lizzie was spooning more eggplant for herself. "I thought you were bringing Joe to dinner."

"We broke up." Sara announced.

"Again?!" Jamison stacked his bones from the duck in his napkin. "Sara, just cut him loose and stop tormenting him. The guy has a right to date." J.R. took Jamison's bones and piled them with his own to re-connect the skeleton into a display for his room.

"I'll tell him who to date and for how long." Sara responded with a toss of her long blonde hair. "Like I care if he's dating Tricia Haltom…"

"William…" Barnabas spoke up from his vegetables. "Wasn't that the girl you…"

"Don't go there." William whispered with his Pepsi drink to his lips.

"That's the girl you used to date, isn't it?" Ally realized.

"They didn't date." Angelique knew the embarrassing truth. "She led him around while she was seeing three to four other young boys."

Jamison and J.R. both groaned in pain at the same time. Before Ally, William's track record with girls was lousy. Both his mother and Aunt Maggie tried fixing him up with girls from their lives and the community, but none of them ever worked. Sabrina had even accused William of being too closed off to her.

"It doesn't matter who was in the past…" Angelique looked lighted up with a big smile across her ruby red lips. "What matters is now. Ally, you are the best thing to ever happen to William."

"Hear, hear," William toasted his wife and kissed her.

"Jamison," Quentin swallowed what was in his mouth. "Your mother wants to know when you're going to settle down and give us grandchildren."

"Dad," Jamison had asparagus in his mouth. "I'm eating!"

"J.R., Lizzie…" Carolyn was putting her children in the hot seat. "You'll give mommy grandchildren, right?"

"Mom, I'm not dating right now!" Lizzie reacted shocked.

"Grandchildren?" J.R. looked to Lizzie. "Mom, I'm surprised Lizzie didn't give you ten kids just while she was in high school!"

Lizzie kicked her brother from under the table. Their brother, Christopher, had put down his book to start laughing.

"Sara…" Angelique looked to her youngest.

"Mom, please…" The blonde one reacted apprehensive to the idea than reached over and smacked her older brother to the head.

"What was that for?!"

"That's for starting this discussion!"

Ally looked up from coaxing Georgia to finish her vegetables. Out the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the servants coming from the main hall. Chloe stood in her black and white uniform and stood at attention. Carolyn lifted her head from the dinner conversation.

"Mrs. Loomis…" The cute brunette responded. "There is a gentleman here for Mr. William and Mr. J.R."

"Are you boys in trouble?" Carolyn asked.

"I better not be!" William looked to his cousin and recalled on his past stunts, like using his name in a paternity suit and giving the police his identity. Being a comedian in the house before the family was one thing, but J.R's practical jokes on society often went to far. To this day, J.R. was never arrested for the chalk outlines and phony dead bodies at their old high school and the family was sure he was responsible for the crop circles at Parker's Field. To this day, photo-shopped nudes of Lizzie, Sara and Amanda still popped up on the Internet, even long after he had stopped selling them to his cronies. William rose wiping his lips of the duck sauce.

"God, I hope they didn't look in the trunk!" J.R. mumbled as he followed William to the foyer.

"J.R., what did you do?" Willie started wishing he had placed the boy in military school.

"Nothing!" The young man's voice shot back.

"So," Quentin tried stirring another discussion over his meal. "Did you hear about that TV Show coming to town? The Eckerts over on Frid Street are getting a new house and a trip to Disneyland."

"That's nice." Carolyn knew them. Diane Eckert and her daughters came to her aerobic center often. "They could use it. That house must date back to Gabriel Collins…" Her voice started trailing off. Angelique had sensed something and handed Lainey to Sara then left to check on her son. Amanda took a sip of soda and decided to go see what was going on. Quentin and Willie exchanged looks as Carolyn told Chloe to wait on clearing the table and went to check on J.R.

"Lizzie, Amanda… watch the babies…" Maggie heard J.R. and William arguing. If someone didn't get into the drawing room, William's temper would have him tossing J.R. out the window. Their argument was loud, loud enough to rouse the family members from dinner. Angelique came gliding into the room as her son looked ready to bounce J.R. off the wall.

"If you didn't tell, who did?!!" William was shaking his cousin.

"William, stop it!!" Carolyn raced to her son's defense.

"I didn't tell anyone!!!" J.R. was in the corner down from the fireplace and beneath the model ship on the cabinet. "I haven't thought of her in years! Do you think I want to talk about it?" William was holding him by the shirt.

"William!" Barnabas spoke up loudly and adamantly. "What's going on here?"

"We got subpoenas to appear at the Becker case in Bangor!" J.R. pushed his way past his cousin. "They want us to testify against her!"

"Subpoenas??" Maggie reacted confused and looked around to Ally. She was hiding just out of sight in the back hall from the drawing room to the dining room. She knew what was going on, and she was trying to hide from the truth. She was also hiding from her husband's anger. She knew how he could get. The family gathered round, William turned round to her glaring at her with his brown eyes violated and embarrassed. He passed by his Uncle Willie and Aunt Carolyn toward her.

"Ally…" His head was lightly shaking out of stunned embarrassment. "You're the only other person who knew. Please tell me you didn't tell anyone. I don't want to believe you broke your word." His eyes started filling with tears.

"I had to tell!" Ally confessed through her broken heart. "I had to tell the judge why I could not take the case! The district attorney wants your confession to convict her! I am bound by law to reveal all I know about the case otherwise I could lose my license!!!"

"You promised you'd never tell!" William was lightly shaking her. "I don't want anyone knowing!!!"

"But you didn't do anything wrong!" Crying and pleading, Ally tried to convince him. "You're the victim here!"

"You don't get it, do you?!" William had never screamed at her before to make her cry. "I know what she did! That's bad enough!"

"Gloria Becker?" Carolyn was looking at her son's subpoena. "What do you boys have to do with that case?"

William punched a hole in the wall of the drawing room behind Ally, and she screamed briefly before breaking into tears. Her husband walked past her toward the dining room, into the kitchen and out the back entryway. J.R. tried hiding his face and raced through the front hall and out the front doors, swinging them behind him to vanish into the night. What had started as a wonderful family night had turned into an ugly confrontation. Both William and J.R. tried to flee the house and their embarrassing pasts as they left their speechless uncles, aunts and cousins.

"Becker?" Quentin recalled that name. "Why does that name same sound familiar?"

"Gloria Becker?" Carolyn had not heard that name in several years. "She was one of the nannies here when the kids were little. I fired her for smoking pot in the East Wing!" She turned to Ally. "Ally, what's going on here?"

"She's on trial in Bangor for molesting young boys!" Ally was crying hysterically after embarrassing her husband and J.R. Maggie tried to console her. "William told me she touched him and J.R. when she was here!!!"

"Oh my god…" Angelique lightly fainted and Barnabas caught her. Maggie lightly gasped and Sara's jaw dropped at the revelation. Amanda dropped to the sofa. Willie uncontrollably pulled open the liquor cabinet and started pouring himself some sherry. How come none of them knew about this? How could such a disgusting secret go this long without being revealed? Barnabas felt a great rage building in himself and a great pining for his daughter-in-law. Even Sara began struggling with her past. All those teenage years she spent torturing her brother for being scared of the opposite sex and this was the reason for it. A great guilt began overtaking her. Jamison was just a few months younger than William. They used to play in the West Wing and set fires on the estate.

"Why didn't she touch me?" Jamison asked out loud and got offended looks from his mother and aunts.

"Angelique…" Barnabas strove forward to take charge. "Look after Ally and keep her here…" He took his cloak and cane from their hooks inside the front entrance. "Quentin, you and Willie should look for J.R. and make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

"Barnabas…" Angelique's eyes were full of tears as she tried to care for Ally distraught over the events. "Our son was violated!! He lost his youth, and I never knew it! Be kind to him."

"Angelique…" Barnabas looked to her unprepared as he motioned to the door. Quentin and Willie were quietly thrusting their coats on to pierce the night air. "He is my son. I will show him the same compassion as my father showed me." He turned briskly and followed Willie out the door toward the front veranda. In the foyer, Jamison stood with the women of the family. His sister sat speechless behind him and his cousin Christopher was coming through the hall from the dining room unsure what had happened. Lizzie was carrying little Lainey with Georgia by her side.

"Something bad happened." She realized.

"Where'd daddy go?" Lainey asked.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Quentin and Willie headed directly for the Blue Whale Bar And Grill at the wharf to ask around and found J.R. sitting in the same spot Willie once sat when he came to town with Jason McGuire. His son was named for him. Without saying a thing about the up-coming trial, the three of them ordered beers and watched the football game on the TV. Three beers, two bowls of peanuts and pretzels later, they returned to Collinwood together. Thirty-five years old, J.R. had been carrying that horrible secret since he was five-years-old and now his family was aware it. Lizzie avoided him for once, and Christopher asked if he wanted to play a video game. At midnight, he decided he didn't want to sleep, and he went back behind the estate toward the carport, looking for his old basketball hoop, but there were too many cars parked to shoot baskets. There was Uncle Quentin's mini-van, Aunt Carolyn's Escort, Lizzie's convertible and the household station wagon blocked inside by his corvette, and it had a dead battery. After poking around inside, he found himself in the illumination of the security light over the back of the garage, bouncing a softball off the back wall, trying to smack a tiny round window twenty feet off the ground looking into the second floor loft of the former carriage house. After almost an hour, he noticed a presence coming to meet him. It might have been the ghost of Josette from the Old House, or it might have been the deceased blonde housekeeper from 1897 who puttered through the attic, but between pounding the garage wall, he noticed she wore a long pink flannel robe and had short blonde hair bobbing over her shoulders. His mother had come looking for him.

"J.R, " She started. "It's after midnight. Come on in and go to bed…"

"Can't…" J.R resisted. Carolyn sighed a bit, her breath forming in the cold night air.

"Honey…" She looked back at him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No…" He pounded the wall again, catching the ball as it bounced off. Rolling her eyes, Carolyn rubbed the back of her neck, shivered in the cold night air and sighed a bit.

"J.R…"

"My whole life!!!!" Her son suddenly screamed, pounded the wall with the ball and caught it again. "I can't get any where with girls! Am I stupid? Am I ugly? Have I been unconsciously screwing myself over?!" He pelted the wall again and caught the ball. "Jamison has girls all the time, sometimes at the same time… William gets a wife… what about me?! What about me?? It's all because that stinking blonde forced me to watch her undress!!!" He pounded the wall even harder, missing the window and rushing back to catch the ball. Just barely catching it, he pounded the garage again, dislodging part of the paneling but not hitting the window.

"J.R, honey, I'm sorry…" Carolyn lightly trembled and felt her heart breaking. "I'm sorry for not being a better mother and knowing what was happening. I'm sorry for not protecting you better… I'm sorry I ever hired her."

The softball pounded the wall and shot backward off it.

"But it's not your fault…" The petite blonde matriarch of Collinwood looked to her five-foot-eleven son. "It's my fault. I should have spotted that girl for what she was a lot faster, and Gloria should have known the difference in right and wrong. That she used my little baby to… that she did anything to you… it's not your fault."

"Mom…" J.R. pounded the softball off the garage wall and looked to her. "Why don't girls like me? Am I a jerk?"

"You're not a jerk." Carolyn looked into her son's brown eyes. He had her face, but his father's color. "You just stayed a kid a lot longer than your cousins. You're still trying to have fun whether it's the crank calls to the Blue Whale, trying to perpetuate UFO landings, blowing up your sister's chest, going around impersonating city employees or selling those photos of your sister to those magazines."

"You know about that?"

"We'll talk about it tomorrow." Carolyn shifted her weight and shivered a bit. "Honey, you will grow up when you are ready. Personally, I wish it could happen a lot faster, but… I'll give you all the time in the world you need."

"Mom, I want a girlfriend." J.R poured his heart out to her. "Why didn't you ever try finding me a girlfriend like you did for William?"

"Because your cousin grew up…" Carolyn started to turn back for the main house then hesitated. "If you want me to find a nice girl for you, then you have to decide what's more important. Making up stories about little creatures that multiple when they get wet or actually going out and meeting a girl who might like you?"

"Maybe I can find a girl who appreciates my jokes." J.R. hurled the softball one last time at the window, hitting it square to the center and shattering the glass raining into the top loft. He hit it. He actually hit it! His jaw dropped in shock, and he looked to his mother and back again. Carolyn stopped, paused and looked back at the gaping hole in the garage.

"This will be our little secret…" She mumbled tiredly, gestured for her son to walk by her and passed her arm over his shoulders, practically herding him up to the house.

Off the estate, over and beyond Rose Cottage where McGruder Road created the short cut from the Collins property over to Seaview Drive was the off-estate home of William and Ally Collins. The Harridge's cat out for the night had encroached on the property and was up on the back deck looking over the wide backyard with glowing eyes. The Temple's bull-mastiff was barking into the night for the nightly cacophony and chorus of barking dogs. First, the Tisdale's bulldog trussed up in their house and then the Stewart's pregnant female rottweiler. In her upstairs front bedroom, Ally woke to the noises. Her hand reached over to ask William to get her some water, but this time as she reached over, he wasn't there. Her burden was heavy, her guilt stabbed through her chest and a deep remorse filling her soul. She wanted to scream and curse herself, but she couldn't. Her emotions had been spent crying into her pillow. Why didn't she just do the right thing and keep it a secret like her husband wanted? She had outgrown her law career, her husband and family were important to her, but she still felt driven to do the right thing and now it might have cost her. She had repeated her husband's deepest darkest secret to her boss and the Hancock County Circuit Judge! Just what was she trying to do? A tear sliding down her face, Ally lifted to her feet to roam the house and haunt it like the ghosts of Collinwood. Her silver pajamas glittering in the partial illumination, her red slippers daintily snug to her feet, she shuffled barely awake and hardly alive around her marital bed and toward her open bedroom door. In the hardwood floor of the hall, her slippers made noises toward her daughter's room. A Hannah Montana poster on the door, it was lightly ajar as Ally scanned over to Lainey in her bed decorated by Little Mermaid bed sheets, across the Barbie-covered and crayon and coloring book littered floor to Georgia curled up in her bed. Both the little angels were running wild in their dreams. Tiny Lainey moved a bit and faded away again. Ally took a deep breath and started on her way to the back stairs, but something made her look back again. The door to the spare bedroom across the hall was ajar. It was usually kept closed except when family or friends stayed. She looked at the door a mere moment and turned for it again, her right hand extending to it, pressing lightly to the door to widen it far enough to look inside the room. Across from her on the covers of the canopy bed, William laid asleep and closed off to the world. Ally stood looking at him for what seemed hours stretched from minutes before she pushed herself further. There was a lightning of her heart to see him again, and a glimmer of emotion in her eyes to see him again. Quietly and silently, she started to reach to him… then drew back afraid. She had violated his trust tonight. She was responsible for embarrassing him. Unsure what to do, she drew back… fighting the urge to hold him, stepping back to the wood trunk at the foot of the bed. It creaked open under her hands, allowing her to pull out the comforter inside it. With the large wrap falling open, Ally pulled it apart and draped it over William's sleeping body.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered breathily into his ear as she leaned over him. She pulled it over his leg, up over his shoulder and then stepped backward once more, gliding lightly backward, hurriedly but slowly, pulling the door with her and carefully closing it, delicately allowing the latch to slide into place with a light click.


	5. Chapter 5

5

Thirty miles northwest of Collinsport on Highway 1 on the north shore of the Penobscot River and the confluence of the Kanduskee River was the city of Bangor. According to legend, Samuel De Champlain first discovered the shore during his exploration of the region in 1604. He befriended the local Kanduskee Indians here, and his supporters were guests of the Indians were several years, finally settling and founding the city of Bangor in 1769. Toward 1820 as the territory was nearing statehood, Daniel Collins of Collinsport rallied in the assembly to have the state capital placed at Collinsport, but opposition was met by James Lincoln, a land-owner near Bangor, and the matter fell to which city had more money; Bangor with its lumber industry or Collinsport with its fishing industry. In the end, Augusta won out over Collinsport, Bangor, Portland, Augusta and several other towns with its lumber and shipping industries and Collinsport forever stayed just a minor town, more than just a community or hamlet but much more than just a tourist spot. Meanwhile, Bangor continued to grow and proper and exceed in size. It stopped using the gallows before Collinsport, but Collinsport was first to show its support to the Union during the Civil War with 1,218 soldiers over Bangor with 1,179. While Bangor had Stephen King, Collinsport had William Collins.

It was the county jail in Bangor where Gloria Becker had been incarcerated. She was forty-five years old and her life might as well be over. Why did she do it? She didn't know, but after several years, she had gotten sloppy. She had forgot to lock the door and forgot to listen for the other day-care workers. She had been living with this predilection for years, sometimes going months without succumbing to it. She actually tended to subvert to it whenever she didn't have a boyfriend. How many kids had it been? Twenty? Thirty? Fifty? A hundred? It seemed as if all those faces tended to flow together after a while. Tired and bored, she set aside her book and started to rise from the cot in her eight by ten cell. Clad in an orange jumpsuit, she wandered over to the sink-and-toilet combo in her room and turned on the water, forming her hands into a bowl to catch the water and get a drink then using her wet hands to moisten her face. The only sounds she had were from the street beyond the wall, the talking of female juveniles and the few streetwalkers already picked up for the night. She pressed hands to her face and when she removed them she realized she suddenly had a window with bars in it. Where did that come from? Why had she never noticed it? She looked out and around her confused then stepped on the toilet to peek out. Instead of cars and trucks on the street, she saw horse-drawn carriages, people walking by her in period costumes from another age and beyond them some form of scaffolding going up in the town center. What happened to the fountains and street lamps? They were all gone.

"What the hell…" The blonde prisoner stepped off the toilet and turned round. What happened to the toilet? It was just there. Instead of a lime-green wall, she now had an unpainted wall of stone and mortar. Her cots had vanished, replaced by a panel of boards resting upon bricks with an old mattresses. Her endless view of jail bars had been exchanged for a tiny room, just a bit larger than before and a heavy steel door with a solid window. Her clothes had changed as well. She was now dressed a dingy and dirty long red and white dress with a high collar, long sleeves and floor length skirt. It looked like something she had seen in a book on Colonial History. Her reality and perceptions were being altered. It was almost as if she had been sent back in time to the turn of the Nineteenth Century, but that was impossible. She started shaking her head in disbelief, pounding at the door confused and scared with the palms of her hands.

"Please, somebody wake me up!" She called for help. "Something's happening to me! I think I'm hallucinating!"

There was a sound. The sounds of voices were coming closer and closer. Gloria stepped back wondering what was happening. Was this a dream? It was a highly detailed dream! She could hear the scraping of metal on metal, the groaning of someone struggling with the door and the creak of the hinges as they were being pushed open. The round unshaven face of Ben Stokes looked at her with an excited grin at her. Clad in a brown to tan coat with britches and high socks with buckled shoes, he grabbed Gloria by the arm and wrenched it to her back, tying her arms together behind her, chuckling as he abused her. Pulling her round violently, he tightened the ropes on purpose, forcing Gloria to scream in pain. Behind him, Peter Bradford entered in his black cloak and period breeches. With him was young and handsome Jeremiah Collins acting as witness, his features jumping from steely and handsome to mangled and bandaged. Gloria was unsure if this was really happening or if this was all just a dream.

"Gloria Becker…" Peter unfurled a parchment with an angry scowl to his face and harsh tone to his otherwise distinguished features. "The court hereby finds you guilty of witchcraft, indecency to children and crimes against humanity this eleventh day of September in the year of our lord Seventeen Ninety-Eight. We sentence you to hang by the neck at the gallows and hereby rid this world of you, and hope you take your sins and foul deeds with you beyond this world and our own!"

"What?!!!" Gloria reacted. Did she hear that right? "There's no such thing as witchcraft! What are you talking about?!" She began crying and trying to free herself. Stokes smacked her into the doorframe to stop her from fighting him, then lifted her up limply and began dragging her out to the town center. Jeremiah placed his tri-cornered hat to his head, looked round a bit and adjusted his riding crop before following them through the dark basement tunnel to the exterior door.

Once outside, Gloria was blinded by the amount of sunlight. There were hundreds of people crowding the entrance to the basement. Gloria was being pushed forward past throngs of witnesses screaming and yelling at her. They hurled trash and spoiled vegetables at her. Her eyes were aghast and hysterically confused at this scene. They all hated her. They wanted her dead. Men cursed at her, and women spit at her amidst the screams of "Witchcraft." Others ordered her put to death. Gloria felt as if she was trapped in _The Crucible_. She was being forced to her death on the gallows. One the bottom steps was a figure in black. She lifted her head to reveal her incredible beauty… blue eyes, blonde hair and strong cheekbones emphasizing a grin of excited satisfaction. Gloria knew her. It was Angelique Collins from Collinwood.

"Mrs. Collins…" Gloria tried to speak to her, but Ben was dragging her toward the noose. "What's going here?! You've got to help me!!!"

"Gloria, there's nothing I can do." Angelique was beaming and observing. "Vengeance must be served…"

Up seven feet off the ground, Stokes cruelly pulled Becker over the trapdoor and dropped the noose hard down over her head. Peter had the cover for her head, jerking it down over Gloria's tear-filled face. The last thing the middle-aged beauty saw was Peter scowling upon her with insane hostility. People were screaming for justice. As Angelique started grinning with evil intent, the faint plaintiff crying of Gloria Becker reacted through this horrible façade. Down under the gallows, Jeremiah looked at the beam holding up the trapdoor then quickly kicked it out of the way, dropping Gloria Edith Becker to her fate… waking up from this experience back in her jail cell in Bangor with her bed sheet tied around her neck, choking her of her last breath, inmates screaming for the guards and jail guards rushing to cut down the female child molester…

"Angelique!!! What are you doing?!!!" Barnabas tore the voodoo doll from his wife's hands and quickly unwrapped the strap from round its neck. Angelique was deeply into a trance before the flaming torrents of heat rising from the fireplace. It took a second for her spirit and body to reconnect and then she reacted embarrassed and upset.

"You promised you'd never do this again!" Barnabas was shaking the doll at her. "You promised me no more witchcraft! Why would you break your word?!!!"

"Barnabas!!!" Angelique had not stopped crying since she heard the truth. "That woman violated my son! Our son!"

"I know what this means to you." He stared at her with great compassion, almost tempted to let her go through with it. "Don't you know I wish I could be the way I once was so I could destroy her, but Angelique… The authorities now have her. Let them prosecute her! She has been captured… she will be punished. Let us have justice!"

"I will never have justice as long as she lives in the same world I do." Angelique pushed away from him and stood over the fireplace, her feelings and emotions were ablaze with anger and hostility. Her heart demanding what it wanted.

"Justice…" Barnabas came close to her. "Or revenge…."

"Barnabas…" Angelique heard his words. "Our son was violated… and I never knew!!!" It was then that he learned the truth. She was blaming herself for letting it happen. She had protected William and kept him close for so many years and then she trusted Carolyn to let a nanny watch over the boys. There was no way Angelique could blame Carolyn for letting it happen so then she could only blame herself. By destroying Gloria Becker was the only way to rid herself of that guilt.

"Angelique…" Barnabas took her by the waist and gently stroked her chin up to see her blue eyes looking at him. "You are not guilty, you have done nothing wrong. You gave me two beautiful children who became two excellent adults, and that is an accomplishment that you should not be ashamed of at all. It is something we should be proud of…"

"But that woman ruined our son."

"What ruin?" Barnabas did not see it that way. "He is tall, handsome, intelligent, much like his father… He has my wisdom, your compassion, a beautiful wife and wonderful daughters… He has found his destiny; he has friends across the world and is loved and appreciated wherever he goes… He has but one unhappy memory…" He used the doll to remind her of their past. "As do we…"

Angelique reacted ashamed and discomfited. She had been humbled once again, upset that she had allowed her dark desires to return after so many years…

"If we can bury the past once…" Barnabas looked to his wife. "We can do it again."

Angelique pulled him close and laid her weeping head on his shoulder weeping intolerantly. Entering through the Old House foyer, the shades of Stokes, Bradford and Jeremiah returned from the past. The former scion of Collinwood ascended the stairs and Ben vanished unseen into the back hall. Peter was met by the apparition of Victoria Winters slipping back around the opening to the kitchen after stealing a look upon Barnabas and Angelique…


	6. Chapter 6

6

The Collins family had not been in Bangor all together since Willie and Carolyn got married. They took the train to support William and J.R. in the trial and then arrived in two limousines to the Bangor Courthouse. The train ride had been long and uncomfortable. Jamison found a young beauty and mentioned to her that he lived at Collinwood at least eight times. Sara was mistaken as a blonde TV actress who had played a vampire killer and gently protested being her at first, finally giving in and faking an autograph. Maggie tried to give J.R. and William advice on how to testify. Barnabas sat with his wolf head cane before him, Angelique by his side pretending to be distracted by the scenery rushing by them. Willie had drank a Sprite along the way, then had to use the lavatory on board. Fussing with J.R.'s tie nervously, Carolyn observed William sitting alone in a back seat by himself, Ally in the seat across the aisle waiting for him to forgive her. It was a rather cold and awkward trip and possibly an even more awkward ride back.

According to the news, Gloria Becker had attempted suicide the night before and had been rushed to the hospital. She was resuscitated hysterical and stressed out claiming that that she had been sent back to 1798 briefly and hung on a charge of witchcraft. A clinical psychologist claimed she was a paranoid schizophrenic, possibly trying to create an insanity defense, but no one could explain the rope burns on her neck. A detective claimed it was from the twisted bed sheets, but then no one could explain how she had got the sheets perfectly tied around an electrical line ten feet off the ground without being lifted to it.

Built in 1945, the Penobscot County Courthouse was a three story marble structure in the center of town. It was bigger than the courthouse in Collinsport, but theirs seemed nicer. The Bangor one showed signs of its age and the residue of harder more serious crimes befitting a larger city. The worst crimes to ever cross the docket in Collinsport ranged from animal abuse to boundary disputes and maybe a random shooting. There had not been a recorded murder in Collinsport since 1969.

Three months since her arrest, Gloria Constance Becker was led into court to be tried for her crimes against children. The courtroom was packed with people both standing and sitting with the Collins family taking up the last row on the prosecution's side behind District Attorney Michael Shapiro. The bailiff sent away a few reporters and then took his post as Judge Joseph Arnold Griffin entered the room from his chambers. He was a short balding man with glasses and thin gray hair. His bold blue eyes scanned the mahogany-paneled walls, the benches entrenched with witnesses, Miss Becker dressed innocently in a white jacket-skirt combo with a pink blouse then over to Shapiro in his smoky gray suit. Sitting above the sea of faces, he allowed the room to sit as the trial began. Shapiro began with Mrs. Destiny Farrell of the Lullaby Day Care Center south in Crabapple Cove. She testified to her hiring of Gloria, her personality, her seemingly perfect record and then went into the incident and feelings when Gloria was discovered sleeping in a cot in a back room with one of the boys. The tasteless sin brought a groan to the room. Frank Garner was there to defend Gloria and protect her rights. He was a friend of the Collins Family since he had dated the governess Victoria Winters in 1966, and now he handled Quentin and Maggie's legal and business affairs along with the wills of the family. Now adorned with a head of snowy white hair, he had made a deal with Ally and Shapiro to keep William off the stand if possible. This whole case was a strain on their marriage. Sitting next to Angelique on the aisle, Ally looked up to her husband's head in the front row. Feeling as if he was being watched, he looked back at her, uncertain on how he felt then turned round again as J.R. whispered something in his ear.

Frank was not contending the evidence much. He objected to Farrell giving her opinion in matters, but he never tried to make Gloria sound like an angel. He was more concerned with making sure her rights were defended. Ally suspected Gloria had confessed to her crimes and all of this was one big show for a deal already made in secret. After Farrell, two more mothers came forward to testify that their sons had been acting different since they had started attending the day care. It certainly made the room wonder if there were other boys not currently in the day care that might have been influenced by Gloria's fascination. After their testimonies, Shapiro now wanted to bring up the matter of how long Becker might have been committing these acts.

"The court calls Jason Roger Loomis to the stand."

The room now started reacting with whispers and speculation. The Collins family was known as far away as Bangor to Boston, from Augusta to Nova Scotia. Just what they had to do in this case was unknown. Dressed in his dad's suit, J.R. almost looked presentable. He was shaved, his hair combed and his red tie was just slightly crooked. Carolyn leaned over a bit to watch him take the stand and his oath. She looked to Willie and sat back again.

"J.R…." The judge knew the Collinsport comedian. He had once served in Collinsport and knew J.R. in his court from back then.

"Your honor…" J.R. took the stand. "How's Tiffany?"

"She just had her sixteenth birthday party."

"Oh…"

"For the record, Mr. Loomis…." Shapiro started his questioning from his seat. "Can you tell the court a bit about yourself?"

"About myself?" J.R. reacted unprepared. He rolled his eyes unprepared, cleared his throat to the microphone taping his words and gave it a thought. "Uh, well, my name is Jason Roger Loomis, but everyone calls me J.R. I was born June 3, 1973 in Collinsport, Maine, and I live in Collinwood, the ancestral home of my family."

"Your family has money?"

"Yes, sir, it does."

"How does your family make its money?"

"Uh, well…" J.R. could see his mother wincing with his "uh, well's" then cleared his throat again. "Let's see, it started with ship-building, property, a cannery, the local Internet-service, the local cable service and then it branched into other businesses all under the helm of Collins Enterprises. My late Uncle Roger invested in a lot of businesses after my Aunt Liz passed away ranging from Tipton Industries to the Howell Corporation. I even think we own a hotel and motion picture studio somewhere out west."

"What about yourself?" Shapiro now finally started to rise and walk over to him. "What do you do to keep busy?"

"I travel a bit, visit Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles and New Orleans…" J.R was speaking casually unaware where this was going. "I play soccer and swim at the civic center… do a little local theatre, sometimes get into a little mischief… I make sure life never gets boring." He forced an embarrassed smile.

"Yes, I know…" Shapiro sat backward on his table before his assistant. "Your exploits are sort of infamous in the Collinsport Courthouse. You've faked crop circles, staged paranormal incidents…" He was looking at J.R's file. "Impersonated fictional characters, tried to jump Widows Hill in an orange Dodge Charger, masqueraded as city employees… You almost got away with extending Kidman Drive toward the highway north of town."

"Yeah…" J.R continued. "The city thought it was such a good idea that they might go through with it for real."

"But I didn't hear anything about a girlfriend." Shapiro hopped to his feet. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

"I never had much luck with the opposite sex." J.R confessed. "Things just never… work out…"

"On your end or theirs…"

"Objection!" Frank reacted. "I fail to see where the prosecution is going with this line of questioning."

"I drop the question, your honor." Shapiro reacted before the judge. He had already established to the jury that J.R was socially retarded because of his past with the accused. "J.R…" He turned round to Carolyn's son. "Do you know Gloria Becker?"

"Yeah…" J.R looked over to her. She was older, a bit heavier and her hair was longer, but he knew her face. "She was one of like… one of almost a hundred nannies that my mom hired to control my Cousin William. He was a bit of a handful back then… he was always leading me and my cousins secretly out of the house to play on the property. I mean, there were sometimes two to three nannies at one time searching the estate for us, but William was always leading us around the estate hiding from them. Five of them couldn't control him. Eventually, my mom stopped hiring nannies and convinced my Aunt Maggie to return to being the governess. We could never get anything past her."

"Did your cousin settle down by them?"

"I'm not sure." J.R looked to William sitting bored and surly behind the prosecutor's chair. "But it seems like Aunt Maggie became governess shortly after Miss Becker was fired."

"Miss Becker was the only one fired?"

"I think so…" J.R added. "William claims to this day he was responsible for driving the rest of them away."

Maggie and Carolyn exchanged looks. It was the same week that William settled from being a brat to suddenly getting involved with the ghosts of the estate. Angelique lightly gasped and closed her eyes with a tear rolling down her cheek, and Barnabas took her hand. Sara held her head in her hands wishing William had been open with her when they were growing up. All those years tormenting him, and he was already suffering. If she had only knew. Willie checked his watch, and Quentin arched his head. His son, Jamison, was leaning forward studying the proceedings with his head supported in the palms of his hands.

"J.R…" Shapiro continued. "Did you have any dealings with Miss Becker."

"I recall her reading to us, bringing us snacks, taking us on walks on the estate…"

"Did you have any dealings with her that did not involve the others?"

"Well…" J.R recalled her laying next to him during nap time on the floor, pulling him to sit in her lap, fussing with his clothes and even hovering over him while she was partially undressed and then there were darker more adult memories he was unsure if they were real or not. They were sometimes nightmares, but looking back, he was not completely sure if they were real or not. To this day, he still wasn't sure. His voice wavered trying to talk. "There were a few times…" He could see his mother looking at him. He could see his mother's heart breaking and his father's face growing even more terrified.

"I don't want to talk about that." J.R quickly recanted than mention those facts in front of his parents. The only person who knew about them was William… they had discussed it years ago and had successfully erased all of it from their minds.

"J.R." Shapiro looked to him. "When Gloria Becker worked at Collinwood, did she commit the same crimes of which she stands accused of today?"

J.R sat looking at her. His former nanny looked like a bustier, heavier version of his mother. She was not immediately attractive, but upon seeing her again, he felt waves of repulsion, disgust, anger and repressed fear. He could recall her holding his head to her bosom, lying barely clothed in front him with her arm over his back… He couldn't say it, but he had to. She had to be taken away from other kids. She had to be taken out of society!

"Yeah…" His voice finally creaked.

The room started reacting with sounds of voices whispering, gasping and commenting. Carolyn leaned toward Willie for support. Angelique reacted with stunned but hesitant shock. William was trying to hide his face as one of the mothers of the affected boys from the Lullaby Day Care Center rose and hurried from the room in shock. Her son was going to end up as emotionally repressed as J.R Loomis or William Collins. It was going to be a madhouse at Collinwood once all this hit the press. Through it all, Gloria Becker dropped her head to the table repentant. As of this moment, her life was over…

"Your honor…" Shapiro wandered to his seat and sat down with a quietly solemn fluid movement. "The state rests its case."


	7. Chapter 7

7

The media involvement in Collinsport was quick and brief. Quentin read a prepared comment to the press from the front veranda of the main house, and then everyone tried to forget the whole ugly business. Gloria was sentenced to fifteen years in prison with a chance of parole within eight years, but she had a court order keeping her from ever working around children ever again. William meanwhile vanished on a trip to France to explore a haunted monastery with his friends in the Atlantic Paranormal Society who knew nothing of the current events in his life, or if they did, they never asked him about it. J.R had followed along with him to get away from the press then got bored and headed to New Orleans, then Fort Lauderdale to judge a wet t-shirt contest then to a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles and a chance to meet Gene Simmons, the famous entertainer. In the absence of her husband, Ally stayed at the Old House with her daughters and in-laws, sleeping in an upstairs room with the feeling that the ghost of Josette Collins was trying to give her advice. She stayed in contact with her husband by e-mail, reading the abridged messages to the family. He promised to be home for the party.

J.R came home the night before the party with a red tan over the entirety of his body. His mother compared him to a lobster. His sister compared him to Amanda's thick red hair. He was of good humor again, speaking about his meeting with Gene Simmons and even the famous Hollywood sex symbol, Pamela Anderson, and getting his picture with her. William arrived home the following morning after his brief layover in Scotland. He had turned down going in a submersible into Loch Ness to make it home in time. Although his daughters rushed cheering and laughing to meet him, Ally responded cautiously… She eyed him with his head cut into a crewcut by a Scottish barber, his head resembling a billiard ball sticking out from his thick dark gray, and waited until it looked like he was in love with her before jumping up and nearly breaking his back on the parquet floor of the foyer out of love. From there, the family put on their best faces and tried to forget the past, all the time hoping no one asked about the trial, but then, who could possibly be that tactless…

It was the locals who arrived first. Rachel Collins, Roger's widow came down from Portland, and Chris Jennings and Dr. Thomas Shaw arrived on top of each other. Their wives, Sabrina and Olivia, already deep into the business of gossiping and sharing stories. Bruno Hess, a local police officer, was a friend of Quentin and Willie. Buffie Harrington was a former waitress, now the divorced mother of two boys who handled the accounts at the Collins Cable Service. Sara and Joe Haskell Jr. were dating again. He arrived with his mother and sister and took to following after Sara. Harry Johnson was the son of the late Sarah Johnson, the former housekeeper of the estate. He was the owner and head of the landscaping company that handled the property and William's house. Ned Stuart came as well. Carolyn had been inviting him for years and he now had the time off from the nightly news in Augusta. David Collins appeared too with his ex-wife, Hallie. His son, Roger, rushed to catch up with Christopher, and daughter, Carrie, came with her long dark hair now down over her waist. Brittany Shears, Henry Desmond and Tim Moss were from the Collinsport Ghost Society. Nick Schafer, Russell Coleman, Chad Bradford and Ralph Tate were more cronies of the younger Collins boys. Amy Jennings was a nurse in Boston, an old friend of David, former ward of Carolyn's and the younger sister of Christopher Jennings. Hannah Stokes was the sister of the late Professor Stokes; Michael Danbury was the nephew of the late Dr. Julia Hoffman, himself a surgeon from Bangor who had treated Roger's heart by-pass two years before his death. Claude North and Dameon Edwards were old schoolmates of Carolyn, Maggie and the late Joe Haskell from Collinsport High. They were partners in the town's joint limo and taxi service. Both Frank and Tony were around to represent their law firm. Larry Chase was one of their employees. Interspersed in these known family friends were the extended friends of the family and the personages from William's paranormal adventures, such as his old mentor, Angus MacGyver, and Jerry Russo, an aficionado of the supernatural. Angelique became reunited with Samantha Stephens and Zelda Spellman. In a social gathering as this, they didn't talk or speak about magic, but conversed about the changes in their lives. Angelique lightly looked over from their memories and lifted her glass of sherry to acknowledge Sabrina Spellman and her husband Harvey Kinkle. She was three months into her second pregnancy, and Harvey was hoping for a boy this time. A bit intimidated by all the wealth and famous but obscure people around him, he tried to recognize a few. Thurston Howell IV was the son of the man who had been shipwrecked on the island and snowy haired Sam Malone had been a relief pitcher with the Boston White Sox. Sam once again got to know Tony Micelli from the Dodgers, but heiress Jacklyn Burkhart rolled her eyes after listening to their unending sports dialogue and hastened over to meet Michael Bluth. Both their families had done business with Collins Enterprises along with the families of Bobby Ewing, Fallon Colby and Sammy Jo Carrington. To feed so many people roaming the first floor, the caterers spread out a buffet table in the hallway between the ballroom and the dining room down from the drawing room. Moving through the hall as exquisite as an Olympian goddess, Angelique was once more reunited with Cate Hennessey, sharing her remorse over the death of her husband then looking for her son. J.R's laughing voice resounded with his insane exaggerations and stories, but her own son had quickly vanished after Sabrina arrived, teasingly claiming she wished she had married him before Ally. Down from the study, Angelique finally noticed Quentin in this sea of people, friends and strangers.

"Geoffrey Collins…" Benjamin Franklin Gates had eyed the portrait in the main hall. "He helped get Abraham Lincoln elected for a second term."

"That's right…" Quentin eyed the portrait. "He was also in D.C. the day Lincoln was assassinated. Family lore claims that Geoffrey was nearly run down by Booth and Payne."

"Wow, that's fascinating…" Gates and his girlfriend, Abigail Chase, loved the thick history of the house. Angelique glided to a gracious stop as if she were American royalty.

"Quentin…" She posed in her long white dress. "Have you seen my son?"

"He went up the stairs beyond the ballroom." Quentin pointed the way with his brandy. "I think he's giving a tour of the ghosts."

"Well, he's wasting his time." Angelique took a light breath. She saw her daughter, but not her son or husband. "They're all hiding in the attic except for the Reverend Trask. He scared someone named Raven Baxter from the guest bathroom."

"This place is really supposed to be haunted?" Abigail asked.

"Oh, yes," Quentin sipped his drink as he prepared another wry comment. "Our relatives never pass away… they just lurk round in the shadows watching over us."

"So, what ever happened to this Victoria Winters?" Nearby, William's TAPS buddies, Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes with their wives learned the ghost stories of the estate from Willie Loomis in front of the drawing room fireplace.

"She left to get married." Willie gave the simplest version of Victoria's disappearance to avoid the truth. "But Maggie replaced her, she's even had a few encounters here over the years."

"Really, how many?"

"Too many…" Maggie gave Willie a warning gaze. Her hair was styled beautifully into a curly pompadour as she played hostess to family and friends. Her father's sister couldn't make it, but her cousins had come up from Minnesota. "Gentlemen, not to be rude, but William published all the stories of the house in his book; we don't really speak of them publicly."

"We're sorry, no disrespect intended…"

"None taken…" Maggie turned and was reunited with Joe's wife Roxanne. She had dated Joe at one time, and even once thought she'd marry him after he left Windcliff, but when he left the hospital, he had already bonded with Roxanne, herself distraught over a broken courtship with Willie. Sometimes it seemed cosmic daytime drama writers created their lives. Through the drawing room, another vivacious blonde crossed the room. Brian Hackett from Nantucket, Al Borland from Detroit, Jerry Russo from Waverly Place and former local Nick Schafer all noticed her: Jerry getting swatted by his wife. She eyed them excitedly having attracted their attention. Oozing even more sex than Lizzie Loomis, the former law assistant turned dancer and singer took one last look at her and rolled round to meet Ally coming down from the upstairs.

"Ally, I am having such a wonderful time here." Elaine Vassal shined and lit up. "Everyone thinks I'm one of the Collinses! I'm getting phone numbers left and right."

"Elaine…" Ally sipped her wine and cleared her throat. "That's not right. Please tell me you're not telling them you're me."

"Ally, would I do that to you?" Elaine took a shrimp puff from a passing waiter. "I'm telling them I'm William's little sister."

"Oh, my god…" Ally hid her face.

"So, where's that hunky Jamison Collins?" Elaine looked round. "He's been avoiding me since I arrived."

"He's over there talking to Dr. Brennan."

"He promised me a walk of the garden!" Elaine scoffed with a bit of a childlike objection. "How could he do such a…."

"I want to talk to you!" William's real little sister, Sara Elizabeth Collins, lifted her long skirts and started hurrying over to confront her imposter.

"Gotta go!" Elaine hastened around Paige and Phoebe Halliwell and toward Thomas Jane to hide behind his broad shoulders. Jane just reacted confused and amused at the same time by the blonde one's eccentric exuberance. Through the room of adults, even a few young adults floated through up from Boston. Alex Russo tried hitting on David's son, Roger, and Justin Ruuso tried to impresse Carrie Collins. Two young ladies meanwhile scoped out the young boys to be found. Their guardian, Marion Moseby was nowhere in sight. Neither were Carey with Zack and Cody. Of course, with a house this large and opulent, it would have been very easy to get lost.

"This place is so big!" Blonde candy girl Maddie Fitzpatrick wore a genuine Donna Cabonna dress as a gift from Ally. "My whole house would fit in this room alone!"

"Oh, please, Maddie…" London barely registered a thought. "This isn't a mansion. Heck, this entire place would fit in my swimming pool in France." She once again responded with exaggeration. None of it was ever true; most of her tales were hyperboles to exaggerate her importance and wealth. Maddie instead looked round and noticed Christopher Loomis coming toward her. He was tall and blonde, sort of resembled Haley Joel Osment, and responded like a prince in his suit and tie. He lightly bowed to Maddie.

"I'm Christopher Loomis." He was smitten by her as he took her hand and kissed it. "And you are…"

"I'm Madeline Miranda Genevieve Fitzpatrick…" The Tipton Hotel candy girl was gushing with excitement to have this cute and wealthy boy interested in her.

"Madeline," Christopher extended his arm to her. "Would you like a tour of Collinwood?"

"We sure would!" London unexpectedly grabbed his other arm. She smiled vacuously unaware she was ruining a nice romantic interlude for Maddie, but Christopher just lightly giggled at London's naiveté and started guiding them both. They strolled past the drawing room and past Hannah Montana and Lola Luvnagle, the public personas of Miley Stuart and Lily Truscott. Upon seeing them both, the two young Malibu tweens, paused, looked again and reacted with confused déjà vu.

"Didn't that guy look a lot like your brother?" Hannah asked Lola.

"A little bit…." Lola was considering it. "But somehow he's… cuter!"

"Ladies…" Angelique walked past them to look for her son. She looked at Hannah, acknowledged her then looked again. It was hard to surprise someone with psychic senses, but she knew the girls' real identities. She could also sense where her son was. He had gone up the stairs in the west wing up the second floor and was now in a back bedroom in the old part of the house. He was not alone. He was talking to someone he trusted. If it were a legal matter, he'd have gone to Judge Harry T. Stone. With matters of a personal nature, he spoke to that Seattle psychiatrist.

"William…" Frasier looked to his old friend from Cheers. "You were the victim here, and once you accept that, then you can live with those memories. I can't help you forget those memories… you've been carrying them for way too long, but I can help you deal with them, but you have to trust me…"

"I do trust you, Fraser, it's just hard to talk about…"

"You don't have to…" The two of them were talking in one of the twelve unused bedrooms of the West Wing. "William, you've been guilty about this for over twenty years, and the worst part is… you don't have to be. You did nothing wrong. You were a child… You were sexually abused by a woman without morals or a code of right and wrong. Trust me, you have nothing to be ashamed about. Sex is nothing but the relationship between two people with an emotional connection to each other… What this woman did to you had nothing to do with sex… it was about control over another person."

"Fraser…" William sat up on the old bed. "When I was a kid, I had such a crush on my Aunt Carolyn, but after that woman, I started wishing Aunt Carolyn would do the same things to me that the nanny was doing." He looked to his old friend full of embarrassment and fear. "Does that make me a degenerate?"

"No…" Fraser reacted analytically. "William, this woman thrust you prematurely into sexual maturity. If anything, your imagination became your shield against it. The fact that you are asking yourself these questions proves to me that you are not a degenerate. You've definitely handled your situation better than any other person in your situation." Fraser sat back in the old Collins family easy chair. "You know… I always wondered why the women in your short stories always turned out to be physically superior to men. I'm starting to understand just how you think now." He sank deeper into the chair. "Can I take this chair with me back to Seattle?"

"I guess…"

"Fraser?" A lady called up the stairs from the ballroom.

"Good lord, it's Crazy Dr. Tracy…" Fraser looked scared and unprepared. "Don't tell her I'm up here." It was Dr. Tracy Clarke, Ally's psychiatrist from Boston. She and Fraser had met in a seminar in Chicago over a year ago.

"But Fraser…"

"Tell her I'm the ghost of Joshua Collins, anything! That woman's voice drives me crazy." Fraser shuddered "It's like fingernails on a blackboard!"

"There's a secret passage in the closet…" William pointed out the opening. "You can take it down to the ballroom."

"You've always been a good friend…." Fraser popped the wall open and noticed a spiral staircase covered in cobwebs. Perspiring a bit, he ambled carefully and slowly down to the first floor and emerged from another closet to reunite with Joe and Helen Hackett from Nantucket. William meanwhile composed himself with a light gasp and started wandering nonchalantly back to the stairway to the first floor. Cute and effervescent Dr. Clarke was there to recognize him. She gave him a quick peck to the cheek.

"William…" She squeezed him in a hug. "I heard from Ally you've been struggling with an incident from your childhood. Your wife wanted me to talk to you about things that happened to you in your childhood."

William looked like a deer in headlights.

"I'm going to kill her…" He finally mumbled.

"Did you ever come up with a theme song for your life?" She was studiously looking over him.

"Oh, um, uh, _American Pie_… by Don McLean." William was escorting her down to the archway to the ballroom.

"Really?" Tracy shined with a big smile across her face. "That's a really good song! You know, with your writing and family, I'd have expected you to pick _Thriller_ by Michael Jackson!"

"Well," Ally was standing vibrantly at the bottom of the stairs amidst a few people on the landing talking on the cell phones or using the area to catch a smoke. "Are you going to let Tracy talk to you?"

"Ally," William looked to her. "I talked to Fraser."

"Where is Fraser?" Tracy was looking round. "Somehow I just keep missing him!" She strolled forward looking through him amidst the party attendees. Garbed and looking exquisite in her long red dress, Ally had her hair shorn and back to blonde again. She looked to her husband with all her heart, a light sparkle of magic bouncing from her eyes and bringing her soul forward to him. John Cage called her sparkle the McBeal charm. It was what made so many men so enchanted by her.

"William," She held him close. "I'm so sorry I told, but, legally, I didn't have a choice. I just never expected it to go…"

"Don't mention it…" He was lovingly stroking her left cheek with his fingers, before taking her by the hand to go meet with his friends.

"You can't ignore it as if it never happened." Ally looked at him trying to hold on to her love and devotion to him. "That does not make it go away."

"But it's my way of handling it."

"It's a lousy way!"

"So let me get this straight…" J.R. was moving past them toward the buffet with Amanda Stephens. Her mother was a close friend of Angelique, and her older brother used to be married to Ally's sister. "You and my cousin visit haunted houses? You ever run into naked female ghosts?"

"No, but they do exist!" The brown-eyed blonde giggled a bit as they passed on by.

"It's better than making a joke out of it." William finally answered as a reference to his comedic cousin.

"William…" Ally drew him in tight to her, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his chest. "I want you to talk to me about anything, and I promise… I promise to never tell another person about your business."

"Really…" William decided to test her. He leaned in close to her and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I almost killed a guy once." He claimed. Ally reacted stunned. She didn't want to believe it. She knew he could have a temper, she knew he could scream loud enough to hurt her ears, but she refused to believe he could harm another person.

"You're kidding, right?" She lightly gasped.

"Sara…" William looked up to his sister with Joe Haskell, Jr. once again. "Who was that guy you dated that one Halloween who nearly got tossed off Widow's Hill?"

"Don't you bring up Brad Champion!" Sara glared at him. "That jerk attacked me! He'd have killed me if that other guy hadn't pulled him out of the car."

"You know…" Joe made a face as he strode by his arm around Sara's voice. "They never did find out who that other guy was." Sara had turned and was looking at him suspiciously. Joe noticed her gaze upon him. "I keep telling you, hun, I had a football game that night…"

Ally turned her head back to her husband.

"You see, Ally," William had his arm around her and was leading her body to meet more of his friends. "After Michael Keaton made that movie about a certain Dark-knight Detective, I bought this costume which I wore every Halloween for about five years…"

END


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